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Monday, April 7, 2008

WARNING: Yeah, I don't really feel that this warrants this big of a warning, but because some people may not know what I mean by "c-word" I will just put this out there - this post will contain a few words that some readers may find offensive. But I hope people aren't too discouraged, because I feel that a discussion is in order here.

Yes, this did happen in 1992, but it is newsworthy because this man will be running for president of the United States and he has a history of offensive language. Please read this for more. And this. And this for more examples of McCain's use of offensive language.

I found this on Feministing. Apparently, Raw Story obtained an advance copy of a book called The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which contains this description of an exchange between McCain and his wife Cindy back in 1992 when he was running for Senate.

"Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, 'You're getting a little thin up there.' McCain's face reddened, and he responded, 'At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.' McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days." (emphasis mine)

I don't know what to say about this. It really speaks for itself. I will say this, however: I hate how some of the worst names you can call a person are related to the female (whore, pussy, cunt, etc.). And how does John McCain choose to put his wife down after "a long day?" By calling her a cunt, which is a vulgar term for a part of a woman's body (the vagina).

The word culture of which such words are a part, helps oppress women by equating female body parts and attributes with some of the worst kinds of insults.

How do you guys feel about the presumptive Republican nominee for president's choice of words?

Note: I am not trying to say that there are no offensive words that relate to the male/male body. I was just focusing on the female related words because they relate to the quote from this book. I would also like to make it clear that I am not trying to vilify John McCain, here. Some of the early comments accused me of looking too far in his past, and if I wanted to make him look bad, I should look for more recent things. That is not the point of this post. It's more about the choice of words used by someone in a prominent position. I would have posted the same thing about Obama or Clinton if I had found it about them.

tyler, i must add dick, dickhead, shaft, motherfucker, gay-ass fucker, and hairy old man to your pitifully short list of offensive terms relating to the generalized male gender. still, i like the way you think.

I also call to the floor the relevance of this particular incident. People say offensive shit to each other once and again, and honestly, if they had to go back 16 years, that's not an awful record. Come on.

in an advance defense of my previous response, i'm not supporting mccain at all. I think Republicans suck just like anyone else with a head on their shoulders thinks. just that perhaps some more recent issues would be more relevant and persuasive, that's all.

It's sort of pathetic that you had to go back in time 16 years to find something to complain about when it comes to John McCain.

Firstly, let me say this: it is a WORD. I don't know if you've heard the saying frequently thrown around playgrounds for the past ...mmm... lets just go with 16 years: "sticks and stones my break my bones but WORDs can never hurt me." Words have whatever meaning you place on them - for example, ass can have a vulger conotation (another word for butt) or an innocent conotation (see also - donkey). Words such as "whore" "slut" "harlot" etc are only negative if you make them that way. Walking around, I've heard girls call their best friends "whores" simply because they lost two pounds or for some other crazy reason. If you say a word in a negative way, something as simple as a color can be meant in a bad way.

Secondly, people have bad days. It's a fact of life, some days are better than others. And on bad days, it's not unlikely that one may become short tempered. Granted, McCain should have realized he was in public, but these things cannot always be avoided.

Thirdly, there are MANY words related to males that are pretty bad... if you want me to list them, I will...

Fourthly, I agree with Tyler. There are MANY worse things that you could dig up on the other candidates running for office... maybe you should look into that... because those offenses are more recent I'm sure, especially considering Obama has only been on the political scene for a very short time.

And lastly, find something new and relevant to complain about. Obviously, Cindy McCain got over it... you should too.

I agree with anonymous if this was not an isolated incident you could have said so.

although I do believe it's a little rediculous that you have to go back 16 years to find proof of an outburst. people have outbursts all the time, I'm sure you can find something more recent to discuss.

I'm sorry, but a man who even thinks about calling his wife/girlfriend a "cunt" is a pathetic excuse for a man . If thats how highly you think of the person that means the most to you, how do you think of everyone else, including those you're governing over. Also, I believe that this was merely to bring attention to a particular bad habit of McCain and that it should invoke further research and this should merely be a highlight of an instance, not a lengthy complete coverage of his entire political career of bad temperament. Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems a little closer to the intention of this particular post. However, that fact that he did do that, in public, to the supposedly most important person in his life, is despicable.

The age of the incident might have eliminated it from discussion except for his more current incidents involving ethnic/racial slurs that indicate a propensity for this sort of speech. Additionally, he attempted to explain it away as the result of a "long day" so it's not as if he's unaware of what the word means or that it's okay. Maybe if he hadn't tried to justify it, I might have bought it as an unfortunate outburst. This is in the public eye because of a new book, Amelia didn't go out digging for this, evilly cackling the whole while, determined to bring McCain down. It just resurfaced and its up for discussion. If the only defense is "well that was 16 years ago" it's not a very strong one is it?

I interpreted alot of your post as meaning that those words in particular demeaned females in some way, so i pointed out several that are derived from the male gender. In fact MORE "four-letter" words derive from the male gender. I listed several, Anonymous listed another six, and I'm sure there are more.

As far as McCain's temper, It does not bother me because of several factors 1. There are a lot of checks and balances in the government.2. It can be an effective Foreign policy tool- other nations will fear a response from actions.3. Hillary and Obama have both been accused of criminal actions, or at least association with criminals in their careers.4. In the past, Cabinet officials and vice-presidents have been involved in duels5. Every heard the term war hawks? we never invaded Canada to get our 54-40. This is because it takes congress to declare war, not the president, so you need minimum of 51 senators and roughly 220 representatives.6. McCain is the only candidate to personally experience war, does anyone think that he will consider his experiences.

On your last point, Tyler, he said that he hates the gooks, and he'll hate them for the rest of his life (not directly quoted, but close). Such a hatred (and it must be profound, otherwise why risk your political career over it?), which have arisen from his war experiences, is not the best source of motivation, in my opinion, when it comes to war, etc.

Amelia, I'm seeing a lot of "that's not important" but not a lot of why. I'd like to hear why I shouldn't be interested in the fact that a political candidate called his wife a trollop and a cunt in public. I mean, considering the things that have come up this election cycle--I would think something like that is fair game. And the age of the incident doesn't preclude it for consideration any more than it does for the incidents in the other candidate's past. I was browsing through Feminist 101, and I noticed that there's no explicit post about why its inappropriate to tell someone that they're wrong to talk about a topic or that its unimportant and unworthy of discussion. But I did find these: http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/faq-why-are-you-concentrating-on-x-when-y-is-so-much-more-important/http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/phmt-argument/